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Órale, the Caló word of the week is trastes. It’s a normally plural noun that means the general set of eating ware, that is, the plates and bowls as well as the forks, spoons and knives. The Spanish word for the same is platos (plates) and cubiertos (silverware). Because tortillas served as both plates and silverware in many households along the Rio Grande for a long time, trastes came to mean everything that went on the table except the tortillas. It was what you brought out of the cupboards for guests. For you only set out a stack of tortillas in a towel or waxcloth if you were feeding only your immediate family.

Órale, the featured word of this episode is despinchado. It means separated from its pinche, which means notorious in Romani or Caló. We’ve covered this word in a previous episode. Something that had the reputation of being pinche, but then lost it, is no longer useful or desirable. It’s despinchado, broken, undermined, or useless. People, machines, tools, relationships, and even situations can be despinchados.

Chirping frogs are typically less than an inch long, and you could mistake their whistling, trilling calls for an insect’s. But these little creatures have an epic story, one that distills the deep mysteries of biodiversity.

Órale, the featured word of this episode of Caló is contrato. It means contract in Spanish, but in Caló it’s a solemn promise or commitment. It’s an expression reserved for big moments in life that call for a heart-felt and consequential promise. The spiritual and reputational consequences of not fulfilling a contrato are high. Of course, the contrato itself may obligate you to an extraordinary end too.

Órale, the featured word of this episode of Caló is vide. It’s old Castilian for “I saw you (or it).” In modern Spanish, the term that’s used is simply vi. In Caló, vide solves the problem of having to decide to speak in the formal or familiar at the same time it allows you to make clear who or what it was you saw. In other words, vide says it’s not that you could see, but that you for sure vide the person or thing you’re talking about.

Órale, the next four episodes of Caló are going to be about the adventure of Boy and his friends bringing one of their carnales back to safety from the dark alleys. This first episode features the word piole, which means a group of steady friends. It comes from the Spanish word, piolar, which is the collective chirping of a brood of chicks. The term conveys the image of a pack of kids talking excitedly to each other in a playground or, in the case of the Southside, in the alleys.

Órale, for this episode of Caló, we’re gonna feature the expression le salió cola. In modern Spanish it means it sprung a tail. Nothing special. But in Caló, le salió cola means the situation became more complicated or difficult than expected— a surprise sudden turn for worse. You thought you could handle it, but then things got out of hand? Te salió cola, ese.

Órale, the feature of this episode is susto. In modern Spanish is means a fright. In Caló, it means a spell. The victim is the sustado. Now, in the world of Caló, many things pass as a spell, but nobody thinks it’s possible to casts sustos so fantastical that people are tuned into frogs. It is thought, however, that everybody tries to cast sustos of some kind, but not everybody can. And among those who can, there are some who are better than others. Also sometimes a susto comes from beyond the horizon, seemingly out of nowhere. Then there are the timeless sustos that are ever present in the barrio and land on a sustado only when conditions allow, maybe once a generation or two.

Moths that linger at artificial lights are easy prey for bats and birds, and they aren’t doing “moth stuff,” like pollinating night-blooming plants. But the impacts of artificial light extend far beyond this familiar example, and in fact pose a profound threat to insect populations worldwide.

Maize, aka corn, was first domesticated in southern Mexico some 9,000 years ago. Much of today’s corn descends from varieties grown by Native farmers in the eastern U.S.